Hello everyone,
I decided to take my LJ78 2LTE on a move from the midwest to California. I had some personal reasons for doing this and I never doubted this would be a challenge. So far it's been slow moving as expected. Since I don't have an intercooler, aftermarket temp gauges, or boost gauges, keeping cool is completely up to my right foot. I had the truck inspected before leaving (tires, alignment and wheel bearing torque) and I did an oil change with Mobil 10W-30. I've decided to take i80 and instead of taking the southern route through to New Mexico to avoid fighting head winds the entire time. I've also decided to break this trip into 4 parts at about 8 hours/day (Omaha, Northern CO, Salt Lake, Vegas) until I reach SoCal. I spoke with Metric Offroad of Grand Junction CO and was advised to take 287 back onto to i80 vs 25 because of the lower speed limit there. I can't recall the name of who I spoke to there but I wanted to give a shout out because they were super helpful. I will note that there is nothing more disappointing than looking at the arrival times on the GPS increase by hours, but the alternative to this was going through another midwest winter. I think the truck and I will be much happier on the west coast.
Right now I'm in CO and I noticed a muddy coolant reservoir so I'm going to take it over to one of few shops open here on Saturday. I'd appreciate all and any advice you might have for me. I'm new to this forum and the LJ and I know very little about this fragile engine.
Here are some pictures of my journey so far (and one of my first diesel bath)...
I decided to take my LJ78 2LTE on a move from the midwest to California. I had some personal reasons for doing this and I never doubted this would be a challenge. So far it's been slow moving as expected. Since I don't have an intercooler, aftermarket temp gauges, or boost gauges, keeping cool is completely up to my right foot. I had the truck inspected before leaving (tires, alignment and wheel bearing torque) and I did an oil change with Mobil 10W-30. I've decided to take i80 and instead of taking the southern route through to New Mexico to avoid fighting head winds the entire time. I've also decided to break this trip into 4 parts at about 8 hours/day (Omaha, Northern CO, Salt Lake, Vegas) until I reach SoCal. I spoke with Metric Offroad of Grand Junction CO and was advised to take 287 back onto to i80 vs 25 because of the lower speed limit there. I can't recall the name of who I spoke to there but I wanted to give a shout out because they were super helpful. I will note that there is nothing more disappointing than looking at the arrival times on the GPS increase by hours, but the alternative to this was going through another midwest winter. I think the truck and I will be much happier on the west coast.
Right now I'm in CO and I noticed a muddy coolant reservoir so I'm going to take it over to one of few shops open here on Saturday. I'd appreciate all and any advice you might have for me. I'm new to this forum and the LJ and I know very little about this fragile engine.
Here are some pictures of my journey so far (and one of my first diesel bath)...